2008 System Review
Marshfield Clinic news: The year in review
The following are summaries of the top Marshfield Clinic news stories for fiscal year 2008.
October 2007
Marshfield Clinic unveils expansion plans
Citing its ongoing commitment to expand health care access in rural Wisconsin, Marshfield Clinic is unveiling plans to bring its cutting-edge physicians and technology to six communities in northwestern Wisconsin.
Cumberland, Bloomer, Lake Hallie, Elk Mound and Hayward are communities where Marshfield Clinic will have a tangible presence within the next two years.
Affiliation with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and nationally recognized research are assets Marshfield Clinic's presence will bring to these communities. For example, in partnership with the School of Medicine and Public Health, Marshfield Clinic is the first site for the Wisconsin Academy of Rural Medicine (WARM) program. Through this program, up to 50 WARM alumni could be practicing in rural Wisconsin by 2017.
Primary care will be Marshfield Clinic's focus as it opens new clinics. The first will be in Cumberland. In addition to family practice physicians, Marshfield Clinic will staff its facilities with nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other support staff. Cancer, heart, bone and brain specialists from Marshfield Clinic centers in Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire and Rice Lake will also provide services to the new locations.
October 2007
Health care systems’ collaboration: Northwoods residents have access to premier cancer program
On October 1, 2007, Marshfield Clinic assumed responsibility for providing medical oncology and hematology services at the James Beck Cancer Center, located on the campus of Saint Mary’s Hospital in Rhinelander.
Ministry Health Care and Marshfield Clinic have worked together for several months to develop this collaborative approach to providing premier medical oncology services. In addition to comprehensive care, patients at the James Beck Cancer Center will have enhanced access to clinical drug trials through Marshfield Clinic’s designation as a National Cancer Institute Community Clinical Oncology Program. Patients also have access to additional expertise and services through the depth of services offered by Marshfield Clinic’s and Ministry Health Care’s systems of care.
November 2007
Marshfield Clinic researcher receives Sebold Award
Tarit Banerjee,M.D., a Marshfield Clinic oncologist and researcher, was honored as the 20th recipient of the Gwen D. Sebold Research Fellowship.
The Sebold Award, established in 1987 by D. David "Dewey" Sebold in honor of his sister, Gwen, recognizes an outstanding Marshfield researcher and supports continued research in his or her chosen field with $5,000. Sebold, a Dorchester native and graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, held several positions at Tombstone Pizza Corporation. He is a charter member of Marshfield Clinic's National Advisory Council (NAC) and past NAC chairman.
November 2007
Marshfield Clinic to break ground for Lake Hallie Center
A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Marshfield Clinic Lake Hallie Center takes place November 29 at the northwest corner of County Highway OO and 130th Street.
“This will be a great addition to the Village of Lake Hallie, Chippewa County and the entire Chippewa Valley,” said Marg Feiler, Marshfield Clinic Regional Primary Care Development director. “Marshfield Clinic recognizes Chippewa County is experiencing rapid growth and business expansion in the Lake Hallie area.”
When completed in late 2008, Marshfield Clinic Lake Hallie Center will offer primary care, urgent care and pharmacy services.
January 2008
Marshfield Clinic Cumberland Center opens
Marshfield Clinic Cumberland Center will open for patient care Monday, January 28.
Marshfield Clinic broke ground for its 5,000-square-foot Cumberland facility, located at 1200 State Highway 48, in June 2007.
Family Medicine Physician Paul Johnston, M.D., and Nurse Practitioner Jayne Rieper are transferring from Marshfield Clinic’s Indianhead and Lakewoods Centers to provide patient care at Cumberland Center.
January 2008
Marshfield Clinic expands presence in Trempealeau County
The Osseo Family Medical Clinic is now affiliated with Marshfield Clinic.
The clinic, located at 13029 9th St., became Marshfield Clinic Osseo Center January 28. Marshfield Clinic acquired the clinic from Sacred Heart Hospital, Eau Claire.
Family Medicine Physician Donald Weinmeister, M.D., will continue to see patients at Osseo Center with four patient care and support staff members.
March 2008
Park Falls Dental Center opens March 3
Access to dental care is a national and statewide problem, but for Park Falls and surrounding communities, this will change with the opening of the Park Falls Dental Center March 3. A dedication for the Center was conducted in July.
“The Park Falls Dental Center reflects a unique partnership between the Family Health Center, Marshfield Clinic, Flambeau Hospital and the State of Wisconsin - and a community commitment to oral health access, education and prevention,” said Terri Kleutsch, dental administrator, Marshfield Clinic.
The new Park Falls Dental Center is located on the medical campus with Flambeau Hospital and Marshfield Clinic Park Falls Center. The 9,739-square-foot facility will serve families in Price and surrounding counties and offer dental care to people of all ages, regardless of insurance or ability to pay. A sliding fee scale will assist individuals or families with limited income and no insurance.
“Marshfield Clinic and Family Health Center of Marshfield, Inc., thank Gov. Doyle, Flambeau Hospital, the Samuels Group and associated contractors, as well as the Park Falls community,” said Greg Nycz, director, Family Health Center of Marshfield. “Our collective efforts have helped us to create a regional resource for quality oral health services for those in need.”
With this addition, Marshfield Clinic now operates four dental centers including Ladysmith Dental Center, Owen Dental Center and Chippewa Falls Dental Center.
April 2008
Celebration marks Marshfield Clinic, Rice Lakeview Medical Center integration
Nearly 1,000 Marshfield Clinic and Lakeview Medical Center (LMC) employees and their family members turned out for an event in April at the new Marshfield Clinic Rice Lake Center to mark a new beginning as one organization. LMC’s Board of Directors recently voted in favor of integrating with Marshfield Clinic. The affiliation took effect April 1.
Marshfield Clinic’s Northwest Division Administrator Dan DeGroot said the event was a gesture of good will as both organizations partner to increase access, convenience and specialized care to this region of the state. LMC Chief Executive Officer Ned Wolf echoed DeGroot’s comments, noting that the event was a way to thank employees for their patience and cooperation through months of integration talks.
“We have many talented and dedicated employees from Lakeview and Marshfield Clinic Indianhead and Lakewoods Centers who have given decades of service to deliver top-notch health care in Rice Lake,” Wolf said. “We know that will continue in the months and years ahead as we pool that talent at the new state-of-the-art facility.”
April 2008
Marshfield Clinic’s new Rice Lake Center opens
Marshfield Clinic Rice Lake Center, located at 1700 W. Stout St., near the intersection of Highways 48 and 53, opened for patient care April 28, and serves a four-county region in northwest Wisconsin.
Following a history that included multiple building additions and thousands of patient visits, Marshfield Clinic Indianhead Center closed its doors for patient care April 25.
Lakewoods Family Center, which joined the Clinic system January 1, 1988, has shifted from providing primary care to psychiatry, behavioral health, neuropsychology and memory disorders clinic. That center was started by Dr. Rod Olson and Dr. Gary Stelzer in August 1980, and became Group Health in 1986. In 1989 it moved into the Lakewoods building.
Ground was broken on the 150,000-square-foot Rice Lake Center in June 2006.
April 2008
Marshfield Clinic to expand services in Stevens Point
Marshfield Clinic is expanding specialty health care services in Stevens Point and Portage County.
As part of its expansion plan, Marshfield Clinic is purchasing 18 acres of land on the northeast corner of the intersection of Wisconsin Highway 66 and Interstate 39, just north of the Stevens Point Airport.
Building size and construction timelines are not finalized and are being developed. Marshfield Clinic is planning to construct a new building in two to four years.
Marshfield Clinic has worked closely with the city of Stevens Point and Community Development Authority on this land purchase and the Clinic’s physical expansion into Stevens Point.
Marshfield Clinic offers consultative services in Stevens Point in leased office space at Saint Michael’s Hospital. Additional consultative services are being evaluated and will be initiated early in 2009 as arrangements are finalized.
Marshfield Clinic also has the Stevens Point Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Center and Marshfield Clinic Stevens Point Dermatology in Stevens Point.
May 2008
Marshfield Clinic to expand services in Stevens Point
Security Health Plan of Wisconsin, Inc., has earned an “Excellent” accreditation rating for commercial products from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
NCQA is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to measuring the quality of America’s health care. NCQA awarded Security Health Plan’s HMO commercial business an “Excellent” accreditation April 18.
NCQA “Excellent” accreditation is based on an annual evaluation of Security Health Plan’s clinical outcomes and member satisfaction. Security Health Plan has maintained “Excellent” accreditation for six consecutive years.
June 2008
Marshfield Clinic provides EHR technology software for external use, creating largest patient database in Wisconsin
Marshfield Clinic’s electronic health record (EHR) software suite – CattailsMD™ – has been chosen for use by Ministry Health Care for the majority of its hospitals and Ministry Medical Group, Ministry’s network of physicians and clinics.
Through CattailsMD™, Ministry Health Care will automate its medical records, and they will be combined with Marshfield Clinic, creating the largest patient database in Wisconsin. More than 1,000 providers in the Marshfield Clinic system, at Ministry Medical Group and Ministry hospital locations will share access to 2.5 million patient records.
This is the first organization outside the Marshfield Clinic system to purchase this integrated EHR software and associated practice management and patient care applications.
CattailsMD™ is used throughout the Marshfield Clinic system and is commercially available to oth,er health care organizations. This agreement also includes implementation of a data warehouse platform for clinical decision support, care management, data analytics and reporting.
Implementation of the EHR for Ministry Health Care will occur over three to five years through a regional rollout process. Joint planning for the project has started.
August 2008
Marshfield Clinic demonstrates improved quality of care, cost savings for Medicare
Marshfield Clinic has again been recognized for improving quality of care while decreasing health care costs in the second year of a four-year Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) demonstration project.
Medicare beneficiaries who received most of their care in the Marshfield Clinic system experienced improved quality of care at a lower cost to the federal Medicare program compared to Medicare beneficiaries receiving their care in the same geographic region from other providers.
CMS, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, initiated this physician group practice demonstration to allow physician groups to prove that providing proactive, coordinated care can also save money. Ten group practices across the country were selected to be involved in the demonstration.
In the second year, 27 measures for quality outcomes were reported to CMS for diabetes, congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease. Marshfield Clinic achieved benchmark performance on 100 percent of those quality measures. Four sites, including Marshfield Clinic, received a performance payment for improving quality and efficiency of care.
An independent third party determined that Marshfield Clinic did better in controlling the growth in Medicare spending than its comparison group - other health care providers located in the same geographic region as Marshfield Clinic - by providing services in a more cost-effective manner, resulting in savings to Medicare while at the same time improving quality outcomes.
September 2008
Longtime Clinic supporter receives Heritage Foundation Award
Mark Bugher, a longtime supporter of Marshfield Clinic, is the 2008 recipient of Marshfield Clinic’s Heritage Foundation Award.
An Eau Claire native, Bugher was former Wisconsin revenue secretary and administration secretary for Gov. Tommy Thompson in the 1990s and serves as UW-Madison Research Park director. He was honored as the 11th recipient of the prestigious Clinic honor at the Eau Claire Golf and Country Club.
Bugher has served on the Marshfield Clinic National Advisory Council since 2000, the past six years as its chair. This group of business people offers direction to Clinic leaders. He also chaired the campaign to raise $40 million for the Laird Center for Medical Research that was completed in October.
October 2008
Facility completion next step in taking medicine ‘from passive to proactive’
With TV cameras rolling, a host of visiting dignitaries and an overflow crowd under a big white tent, the scene was set for the culmination of an event years in the making – the dedication of the $40 million Laird Center for Medical Research expansion.
The completion of this state-of-the-art research facility is another step in “taking medicine from the passive (after symptoms appear) to the proactive phase,” said Karl Ulrich, M.D., M.M.M., Marshfield Clinic president and chief executive officer. We are “a vibrant clinic,” he said, thanks to the efforts of forward-thinking leaders like the Honorable Melvin Laird.
The dedication’s special guest speakers included Laird, U.S. Congressman Dave Obey, former U.S. Congressman Robert Michel, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and, giving the dedication address, Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
October 2008
Manitowish Waters couple completes capital campaign for Laird Center
When Frank and Betty Koller learned they had an opportunity to help Marshfield Clinic reach its goal for a fund-raising campaign, they didn’t flinch.
The Kollers, of Manitowish Waters, included a charitable trust in their estate plan providing for a donation of $5 million to complete the $40 million campaign for the Laird Center for Medical Research. This estate gift will be used for medical research at the Clinic.
“We are extremely grateful to Frank and Betty Koller for this exceptionally generous contribution,” said Karl Ulrich, M.D., M.M.M., Marshfield Clinic president and CEO. “It represents the single largest financial commitment Marshfield Clinic has ever received in its long history of fundraising. Over time, contributions like this will become even more important to advance health care. What a wonderful precedent this couple has set.”
The Kollers have seen several Clinic physicians over the years, which led them to become what they call “friends and advocates” of the Clinic.
October 2008
Governor Doyle announces historic genomic research collaboration
Gov. Jim Doyle announced a historic collaboration among four Wisconsin research institutions that will move scientific discoveries more quickly from the laboratory to the patient.
The Wisconsin Genomics Initiative is a public-private partnership that will include Marshfield Clinic, Medical College of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and UW-Milwaukee.
Through this initiative, scientists will use resources to collaboratively transform medicine by developing a scientific model to be used by physicians to:
- Predict which individuals will develop a disease
- Precisely target a personalized treatment
- Determine how well the person will respond to treatment
- Ultimately, prevent disease before it occurs
Because Wisconsin will be among first states to have statewide adoption of electronic health record standards, Wisconsin Genomic Initiative partners will be able to exchange information with one another and physicians throughout the state.
Initial work will involve genotyping each DNA sample in Marshfield Clinic’s bio bank for 1 million genetic markers; using the Clinic’s electronic medical record to obtain health history and environmental factors for targeted diseases; and building and testing a scientific computational model capable of predicting an individual’s disease susceptibility and treatment response.
Results are expected to be produced within two years.
